Author's Serendipity
by SilentStream
Summary: Alice Wright is a precog in the time period right before the first episode. She writes her dreams into her stories. What happens when these stories are found by the XMen? Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but Alice Wright, her families, and friends. I have no money. Don't sue me, please! All you'll get is cobwebs and belly button lint!

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**Part One**

Inky blackness filled the room, swirling around the light illuminating the room from the computer monitor. The sound of swift typing was the only noise. Typing furiously, Alice Wright scanned the next page with weary eyes before returning her gaze to the computer screen. Behind her, the green numbers of her clock glowed softly: 11:00.

A light flicked on outside her bedroom door. Jerking up, Alice swiftly stuffed the pages out of sight, picking up her global history textbook from where it lay open on the floor. As the door swung open, she busied herself with her notes and another word document. The blank space glared up at her. To her tired eyes, it began to shift and swirl with light and dark colors, like the contrasting spirits of the characters in her stories: some mostly white, some mostly black, but all a mix.

"Alice, what are you still doing up?" her mom asked.

"Homework, mum," Alice smiled wearily. "I'm almost done. I just have to finish this one assignment before bed."

Her mother sighed. "Okay, honey. Just get to bed soon, okay?"

"I will," Alice promised, waiting until her mother had left, closing the door behind her, to resume her real work. Finally, she hit the send button, signed off and printed off the document. While she waited for the printer to boot up, she flopped back on her bed with a happy sigh. The first chapter of her marvelous new story was completed. She couldn't wait to tell McKenzie about it.

"Mickey!" Alice ran to catch up with the girl walking in front of her. Mickey turned around. When she saw the papers Alice was holding, her face lit up.

"You've got it?"

"Yep! Just finished the last chapter last night."

Mickey's liquid-like black eyes took in the dark circles under Alice's eyes. "Sleep much?" she grinned. With the olive skin of her Asian parentage, she didn't often get the telltale dark circles under the eyes.

"Nope."

"I still don't see where you get your ideas," Mickey said, taking the story and scanning the front page. "Where do they come from? It's not like anything you've ever written before."

"I told you. It comes from my dreams. I dreamt all these characters," Alice smiled wearily. "No new additions from last night, though. I must have been too tired when I went to bed."

"Probably. So, what are you planning next?"

"I'll tell you after you read that," Alice winced slightly as the bell rang. "Ack, time for homeroom. See ya during lunch?"

"Definitely."

"Don't be afraid to scribble all over it. I'd love feedback."

"I will. See ya."

"See ya."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Strayphoenix** - Thanks! Precogs are fun to play with, although I had a really hard time wrapping my mind around the particulars of her gift for later chapters. Nonlinear time... bah. : ) 

**Mourning Star Under the Moon** - Well, that is the question, isn't it? One hint: I'm sticking with cannon. And Alice is definitelygoing to have something to do with the X-Men. But she isn't going to _change_ anything.

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**Part Two **

Irene sat at the dining room table, deep in thought. The house felt empty now that Rogue was gone. It had been a long time since Irene had heard the soft tread of the girl's feet, her soft southern twang. The darkness of the house seemed deeper than usual, broken only by scattered visions, foretelling of a present and future that was so near, yet so far out of reach.

Her flimsy foresight had warned her of another precognitive, a girl with more power as a seer than Irene would ever have. The erratic visions Irene received were nothing compared to what this girl, Alice, saw. Such a powerful gift could be a powerful asset, but a deadly handicap were it to fall into the wrong hands. She hated to think what would happen if Alice was found by Xavier.

Raven would be furious. That was one of the reasons why Irene had been hesitant to allow Rogue to return to her adoptive mother, even though she knew she had no power in the decision. Raven could be harsh, cruel, twisted…everything a mother shouldn't be. And yet, the only way of preventing Rogue from going to Raven would be to turn to Raven's enemies. That she would never do; could never do. The betrayal would likely cost her a great deal, both in guilt, and in blood.

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Professor Xavier frowned as he sat in Cerebro, helmet clamped firmly over his bald head. He listened in silence as Pietro Maximoff tripped his new student, Evan, sending him flying into the side of a nearby building. Evan's mental exclamation of pain rang in his head.

Xavier started slightly at the feel of another mental signature, that of a mutant. He left the scene, patching into the security cameras. There was Evan and Pietro, battling on the street. Nowhere around were there any other people, especially not those matching the signature he'd felt – distinctly feminine, yet with the youth of one of his students. He frowned, steepling his fingers as he returned to the battle mentally.

The signature was gone.

_Three Months Earlier_

Alice opened her eyes blearily. Swallowing, she winced. Her throat was parched. Yawning, she sat up, pushing aside the covers and sliding out of bed. The cool wood floor of the hall outside her bedroom pressed against the bottoms of her bare feet. Shivering slightly, she padded into the kitchen, getting a glass from the cupboard and pouring a glass of tap water for herself.

She leaned against the counter, eyes closed, as she drank it, processing the images from her dream. There had been two new characters. One boy – Pietro, she remembered – with his silver hair slicked back with massive amounts of hair gel, and a skateboarder by the name of Evan.

She put down her glass and padded back down the hall, longing for the warmth of her bed. She'd sort out the new characters in the morning.

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Irene sat at the table as Mystique read the evening newspaper and talked about her newest student, Pietro. From the sounds of him, he was one of her usual recruits – a juvenile delinquent. He seemed a bit more arrogant and cynical than most of her team, which consisted mainly of children who would have been perfectly nice children, had they been given a home with parents who actually cared whether they existed.

"Raven, could you cut out a section of the newspaper for me?" Raven asked. "It's in the obituary section."

"Who's the girl?" Mystique asked, getting out a pair of scissors.

"Oh, just someone I saw once," Irene said coolly. She wondered privately which hands were worse - Mystique's or Xavier's.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Strayphoenix** - Thanks for reviewing! Well, I don't think I'll have Alice fall in love with any of the people she dreams of, simply because it would really complicate what happens to her in this chapter. I went back and added some to the second chapter, to elaborate on the characters she dreamt of in the past.

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**Part Three**

Kitty stared in fascinated disbelief at the story in front of her. In a break from her homework (coughprocrastinationcough), she had logged onto However… she scrolled down the page telling of a Professor Charles Xavier rescuing Jean Gray from a two-year coma. She clicked to the next page, reading of the addition of Scott Summers, the seeming lone survivor of a plane crash that had killed his parents and left his brother missing.

"This is, like, too weird," she muttered herself, beginning to get seriously creeped out as she read the last chapter, detailing Kurt Wagner's arrival at the institute, and the testing of Todd Tolensky.

"Jean?" Kitty asked, calling to the tall redhead who was making lunch at the other end of the kitchen. "Can you come look at this?"

Halfway through slicing a bagel, Jean turned, setting down the knife. "Sure. What's up?"

"I think someone's been spying on us. On all of us," Kitty turned the laptop so that Jean could read it, watching as the color drained from Jean's face.

"May I borrow this?" Jean gestured toward the laptop.

"Sure," Kitty nodded. "Do you know what's going on?"

"No. But I'm going to ask the Professor." Jean looked at Kitty's worried face and smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing more than a … _really_ creepy coincidence."

Jean held up a hand to knock on the thick oak door of Professor Xavier's study. "Come in," he called from within a second before her knuckles rapped the wood.

"Professor, Kitty found this story on her laptop downstairs," Jean started, pushing open the door. "It tells about our pasts, leading up to the time Todd came to the Institute."

"Where did she find this?" the Professor asked, wheeling forward in his wheelchair.

"On It's a web site where kids can post their stories for free and get feedback on them," Jean informed him. "How could this be? Could somebody be spying on us, Professor? The person who wrote this knows a lot of information that shouldn't most of the people living here don't! Professor, they know about… about Annie," for a moment, she dropped her Perfect Jean Gray mask. The look in her eyes was that of a frightened child.

The Professor patted her hand reassuringly. "I'm sure it's nothing so drastic as that. For weeks I have been picking up the mental signature of a mutant around Bayville. It's very faint, and extremely hard to trace, but from what I can gather it is the mental signature of a precognitive."

"You mean –"

"Yes, Jean. There is a girl out there who has been having visions, or dreams, of our past and present. Perhaps she has even seen our future," he wheeled his chair around. "I shall be in Cerebro should you need me. You may return Kitty her laptop. Tell her to watch for any updates."

Professor Xavier scanned Bayville for the signature he'd felt in the past few months. The signature was gone, but after a while he found psychic residue coming from a suburb ten minutes away. Narrowing his search, he concluded that the person he was looking for lived in house number 24 on Atwood Road – the Wright Residence. He called up the FBI files of the people in the house, immediately discarding those of the two parents.

Alice Wright, their only daughter at 16 years, stared up at him from the photo.

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Ororo and Professor Xavier gazed in horror at the smoldering ruins that was all that remained of 24 Atwood Drive. Smoke rose from the remains left from the fire. A woman from the house next door peered out the window before coming outside to stand next to them.

"Did you know the Wrights?" she asked bluntly. Professor Xavier shook his head sadly.

"No, we did not. What do you know of Alice Wright? Did she make it out of the house in time?" Ororo asked.

"No. The poor girl sleeps in the attic. The stairs were one of the first things to go, trapping her and her parents upstairs. The firemen couldn't get there in time," the woman's eyes were tearing up. She turned away, taking a tissue from her pocket. "She…used to play with her friend McKenzie on my lawn. I used to make lemonade and cookies for them."

"McKenzie?"

"McKenzie Krishna."

"Do you know how I could get in touch with McKenzie?" Ororo asked. As the woman looked up suspiciously, Ororo continued quickly before the lady could flatly refuse. "We're investigating the cause of the fire. Do you know if the Wrights had any enemies? People who might want to see them hurt?"

"N-no," the woman shook her head vehemently. "They were as nice a couple as you'd ever see. McKenzie lives in the blue house with the lavender shutters, ten houses down on the left," she closed her eyes for a moment. "Please excuse me, sir, miss," she inclined her head toward the Professor before walking quickly away.

"It may be best," Professor Xavier said as they headed up the street, "if we took different names for speaking with McKenzie. After all, she has likely come into contact with Alice's…'stories'."

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McKenzie answered the door when the bell rang. "Hello," she said cautiously, seeing the two people on her front step.

"Hello, McKenzie," the woman said kindly. "I'm Ami Mariot, and this is Professor Raizen. We've come to ask you a few questions about Alice. May we come in?"

"Oh. Of course," McKenzie held open the door, retreating inside with a sniffle. Her eyes were red and swollen with crying. "What do you want to know?" she asked as she led them into the living room.

"How long have you known Alice for?" the Professor asked.

"All my life." McKenzie leaned against the back of her chair, closing her eyes to fight back tears. "We… we went to Kindergarten together."

"Have you seen any of the stories she has been writing lately?"

"Yeah. She's always shared her stories with me."

The Professor and Ororo exchanged glances. "Before she died – did she give you any notes that she might have taken? About what she was going to write next?"

"Oh. Uh… no. All her notes were burned in the fire. But she told me what she was writing about next."

"What?" Ororo asked, keeping her voice level. "What was she planning next?"

"Why do you even want to know?" McKenzie asked, opening her eyes. "What does it matter to you?"

"Please, McKenzie. It matters greatly. Please tell us what she was planning," the Professor asked.

McKenzie sighed, and nodded. Thirty minutes later, the Professor and Ororo bid her goodbye. In the car on the way back to the Institute, the Professor mulled over the information. "It would probably be best," he said slowly, "If we do not reveal our knowledge to any of the students. Alice Wright died in a fire two days before we managed to get to her house. We did not meet with McKenzie."

"Yes, Professor," Ororo nodded.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Three Years Later**

Kitty scrolled trying to find something to take her mind off current events. Apocalypse had risen from his sleep just last month. The Professor was searching for a solution, but so far none had been found. Idly staring over the summaries, she found one that caught her eye and clicked on it.

_"My friend started this story several years ago, before her death. I recently found the notes she'd lent me, and continued it. Here is more in her story, Mutant's Rising._"

Kitty blinked as she read through it. The entire first part was the same, but nearly ten chapters had been added. Standing up, she grabbed her laptop and ran up to the Professor's office.

Professor Xavier and Ororo drove down the street to McKenzie's house. The Professor's eyes were narrowed slightly, his brow furrowed in anger. They got out, ringing the bell and waiting several moments before it was pulled open. McKenzie stared down at them.

"Hello," she said shortly.

"Hello. May we come in?" the Professor asked. "Do you remember when we came three years ago?"

"Yes," McKenzie said as Ororo closed the door behind the Professor.

"Why did you lie to us? You have Alice's notes?"

She turned around, irritated. "Well, I'm so sorry for forgetting that I had those notes. See, there was that little thing of my best friend dying. Next time I won't let it get in the way," she pointed toward the door. "If you would please excuse me, I have chores to do."

"May we see the notes?"

McKenzie glared at the two of them for a moment before shrugging. "Take them and be gone. I've got them all on my computer anyway," she ran upstairs to retrieve them, coming back downstairs a moment later with a packet of folded and dog-eared papers.

"Thank you," Ororo said politely as she opened the door.

McKenzie watched them troop down the walk in silence. "You're not welcome," she muttered, slamming the door.

Irene sat back in her chair, sipping her tea calmly. "I saw her, yes," she told Professor Xavier. "I knew she had died in the fire. However, by the time I had seen it, it was too late to stop." She set down her cup of tea in the saucer. People died all the time, in her visions or out. She had seen her own death once. It could not be helped.

"But McKenzie's story? The one she wrote from Alice's notes?"

"It could be accurate, or it could not be. I don't know, Charles. If you're looking for a solution to how to fight Apocalypse… I don't know what to tell you. I have not seen anything you would find helpful."

Professor Xavier nodded, wheeling forward to go. "Thank you, Irene, for your help."

"Your welcome," she paused, reaching around in her drawer and withdrawing some old newspaper clippings, which she handed to him. "Here, take these."

"From the Obituary?"

"Yes."

There was a brief silence.

"Thank you, Irene."

Ororo shook her head sadly as she went over the notes one last time. The writing was small and loopy, but clearly legible. She could only imagine what the girl had been like. The girl in the fuzzy black and white obituary picture grinned up at her.

"She must have been lucky," Ororo spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully. "If she were that powerful of a precognitive, she could easily have seen her own death."

"She did," Professor Xavier said, turning toward Ororo, his eyebrows raised. Ororo merely blinked for a moment, shocked. "She misinterpreted the vision. It's the one thing in McKenzie's story that never came true," Xavier went on.

"The burning of the Brotherhood house," Ororo breathed.

"Yes," Xavier nodded. "That one event never happened. Her luck lay in that she did not interpret it correctly."

Ororo shook her head sadly. "Or curse."

"Neophyte's serendipity," Xavier informed her with a weary smile. "Beginner's luck. If she had realized what the vision meant – who knows, it might have driven her mad. Dreaming her own death, not knowing whether she was foretelling the future or not…"

"No, not neophyte's serendipity," Ororo objected. "Author's serendipity."

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